Tilia i6<^5 



It is now universally admitted to be a hybrid between T. cordata and T. 

 platyphyllos. The distinctive marks of these species and the hybrid are : — 



T. platyphyllos. Branchlets and leaves very pubescent with long hairs. Buds 

 with three external scales. Cymes pendulous, usually three - flowered. 

 Fruit with prominent ribs ; shell woody and hard. 

 T. cordata. Branchlets glabrous or nearly so. Leaves small, glabrous except 

 for axil -tufts, bluish beneath with irregular and not prominent tertiary 

 venation. Buds with two external scales. Cymes erect, five- to seven- 

 flowered. Fruit faintly ridged ; shell thin and fragile. 

 T. vulgaris. Branchlets quite glabrous. Leaves larger than those of T. 

 cordata ; under surface pale green, glabrous except for axil-tufts and a few 

 hairs on the nerves, with parallel straight and prominent tertiary venation 

 (as in T. platyphyllos'). Buds with three external scales. Cym^s pendulous, 

 five- to ten-flowered. Fruit faintly ribbed ; shell woody and hard. 

 There are at least two distinct forms of the common lime in cultivation in 

 England and elsewhere which require further study, one with leaves light green 

 beneath, longer than broad, the form described above and considered by botanists to 

 be typical T. vulgaris, Hayne ; and the following : — 



1. T. pallida^ Wierzbicki, in Reichenbach, Icon. Fl. Germ. vi. 58, t. 315 (1844). 

 Leaves smaller, often not much larger than those of T. cordata, as broad 



as or broader than long, yellowish or bluish green beneath. It is readily dis- 

 tinguishable from T. cordata by its prominent tertiary venation, and has flowers 

 and fruits like those of typical T. vulgaris. According to V. Engler, it is occasion- 

 ally found in the wild state in Hungary. 

 Rarer hybrids also occur : — 



2. T. flavescens and T. floribunda, A, Braun, in Doell, Rhein Fl. 672 



(1843). 



These peculiar trees, possibly hybrids of the same parentage as T. vulgaris, 

 were noticed growing in an avenue at Carlsruhe in 1836. The leaves closely 

 resemble those of T. cordata, but are larger and with paler axil-tufts. The cymes, 

 with numerous flowers, in which staminodes^ are developed, resemble in these 

 respects those of T.japonica, the small-leaved lime of Japan. According to Koch,^ 

 the seed was sown, and produced pure T. cordata seedlings ; but two trees at 

 Kew, labelled T. flavescens, presumably seedlings, have larger leaves than those of 

 the common small-leaved lime, and are peculiar in their yellow branchlets and 

 petioles. These, though young trees,* bear flowers, few in the cyme, without 

 staminodes, in partly erect and partly pendulous cymes. One obtained from Spath 

 in 1900 is about 20 ft. high ; the other, from Simon- Louis in 1902, is about 15 ft. 



* Identified by Schneider, with T. suhparvifolia, Borbas, in Oest. Bot. Zeit. xxxvii. 297 (1887). T. vulgaris, var. pallida, 

 Sargent, Bull. Pop. Inform. No. 30 (1912), and in Gard. Chron. lii. 88 (1912), is the typical form of T. vulgaris, and not 

 the tree described by Wierzbicki. 



2 On account of the staminodes, these trees are often supposed to be hybrids of T. cordata with T. amerkana, but they 

 show no resemblance to the latter species in the shape, sire, or serrations of the leaves. 



3 Dmdrologie, i. 481 (1869). 



* Sargent, Bull. Pop. Inform. No. 30, 1912, and in Gard. Chron. lii. 87 (1912), says that plants only a few feet high 

 flower profusely. 



